Sunday, 30 April 2017

CXXV. The Codex Gigas Devil

Codex Gigas, popularly known as Devil's Bible, is a medieval manuscript famous for its unusually large dimensions. It contains a collection of texts in Latin, including the entire Bible. This book probably took decades to complete, but according to legend it was written in a single night by a monk who was supernaturally aided in the task by Lucifer himself. In exchange for his soul, of course. This idea must have come from the fact the handwriting is incredibly unified and unchanged throughout the manuscript. The most famous page in the tome is the one containing the Devil's image shown above.

This image is already featured in Iulia's spell tome.

Which brings us to my newest piece: a miniature representation of the Codex Gigas devil. This is another AoS28 commission for Urion, accompanying the snail demon from my previous post.

Translating that book illustration into miniature form
required some thought. He needed a more natural and believable body and
pose, but still had to be recognisable at first glance. I went for a
Kroot body and Ghoul arms. The head is the key to identifying him, so I
sculpted it from scratch to resemble the illustration as closely as I
could.

The spikes on the back of his head are not suggested in my reference material, but I added them to visually tie this devil in with his two mates - the snail and the barbed Bol.

That face came straight from the uncanny valley. If I encountered this guy somewhere I would wet my pants.

The snail and the devil frolicking in the woods...

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo before priming. So an after priming one will have to do this time.

* * *

Some material arrived for future projects. Problem is I have way more ideas than I have time.

Really nice! I like it alot that certain characters reappear in different places, like here the devil is first in a book held by one of your miniatures and then he appears as a new miniature as well (the same with the white wolf with the bullet wounds)! It gives more depths, like creating a new chapter in history for these characters!

On an other note: I really like the forest basing on your recent miniatures and on the backdrop Would you mind sharing what you use and which techniques you apply?

Thanks MarK! I do try to make connections between my miniature characters and between them and the fantasy worlds they inhabit. I'm happy it's visible. :)

My basing work has improved over the years, if I say so myself. I use a variety of products, including flock, static grass, tufts, tiny leaves, sand... I'll be glad to dedicate a post, or a part of one, to explaining it in depth. I'm working on a handful of new minis now whose bases will do perfectly for a tutorial.

Stupendous work, and it clearly references the image while bringing it into a more "realistic" direction as a real creature. It also has sort of a creepy mask look, something like what you might see headhunters wear, so I could certainly see that same head being used on human henchmen/cultists, but painted as more of a mask.

Thanks, James. I still consider myself a mere dabbler in sculpting. But I'm intensifying my efforts in hope to get good enough to start producing entire figures in the foreseeable future. Perhaps when I'm more sure of what I'm doing I'll demonstrate my process in detail. :)

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